After  a decade of marital problems, 39-year-old flight attendant Helle Crafts finally decided to get a divorce from her domineering husband Richard.  On November 18, 1986, after a long flight from Frankfurt, Helle was dropped off by coworkers at her Newtown, Connecticut, home.  She was exhausted from the flight but excited to be getting home to her three children before a severe snowstorm was to hit later in the evening.  As her friends saw her off,  it didn’t cross their minds that it would be the last time they’d ever see Helle again.

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Sources

Gado, Mark.  “The Wood Chipper Murder Case.”  Murderpedia.org. http://murderpedia.org/male.C/c/crafts-richard.htm

Gombossy, George.  “Crafts Loses Appeal For New Trial.”  The Hartford Courant,  July 7, 1993.

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1993-07-07-0000007613-story.html

Mcurray, Kevin.  “23 years ago Richard Crafts was more willing to part with his wife than his money.”  Newstimes, November 18, 2009. 

https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/23-years-ago-Richard-Crafts-was-more-willing-to-256633.php

Herzog, Arthur.  The Woodchipper Murder.  New York, Henry Holt & Company, 1989.

Lee, Henry.  Cracking Cases: The Science of Solving Crimes.  Amherst, Prometheus Books, 2002.

Grogan, David W.  “The Lady Vanishes, and a Woodchipper Leaves Just a Shred of Evidence.”  People Magazine, August 1, 1988.